I was curious if anyone has had any experience with this. I have a small amount of land leased for pasture and I do hunt on the backside of it a little. I live in southeast Texas, about 10 miles from the Marsh. I have about an acre I keep tilled up and we usually plant a small garden, or put in a food plot to attract deer and hogs. Directly behind it used to be about a 50 acre resivoir that stayed full of ducks, in the past couple of years it was drained and turned into a high fence operation.

In the interest of keeping this to a decent reading level, the back side of this property is low and when it rains it holds water, so I thought about pulling some small levy's up (about 18 to 24") where it would hold the water and hopefully attract some birds. The main part of this I question is most people have told that an acre or two is not enough in this area to draw birds into it. I was just curious if anyone had done this, if this was a decent idea, and if there was anything special to consider when doing it, like problems that occurred or those "wish I had thought of this" type stuff.

I appreciate any input, if you don't think it will work or feel like its not worth it then please speak up.

On an added note, I do get ducks in when the feild is just holding water, but never during season, they always show up end of February and early March for whatever reason. Other than a couple here and there they land on the pond, it doesn't draw many during the season right now.

I rode my stick horse to the store, if felt like I walked the whole way....

i think its worth a shot. On one of the farms i duck hunt there are two ponds. THe larger one has been around for a looong time. The second smaller one, the farmer made for his son to hunt. He got a grant from the DNR to build it. It holds water really well and holds ducks as well. I think you should try your idea, small ponds are fun to hunt.

Thank you for the input Thomas, I'm gonna give it a shot, it may take some time to get them paying attention to it but over time if there is something they want or need there then they will eventually start showing up.

I rode my stick horse to the store, if felt like I walked the whole way....

put in some sort of spill over spot in the levy and maybe even a drain that you can use to drain it at the beginning of spring to plant with something then close the drain at the end of the summer to let it start filling back up flooding the food source you plant. Just a thought but a overflow pipe or spill over type deal is probably a must so if it does get to high during a heavy rain it doesn't wash out a section of your levy.

Red neck engineering- If ya can't fix it with duck tape, bailing wire, zip ties, and JB weld well than it can't be fixed.

If it moves and it aint suppose to duck tape it. If doesn't move and its suppose to put WD-40 on it.

I think it's a great idea. If you're going for a permanent pond, dig a big deeper and lay a liner in, either pond liner or maybe clay. Then some soil and pea gravel. One thing to get ducks coming back in vegetation. So i'd look into what ducks like to eat and plant that, you can buy aquatic insects and plants that help to start the ecosystem going. I guess it's no different than a large aquarium. I haven't built one yet, but have plans to do exactly what you are talking about. Too bad about the reservoir. it's terrible news when someone fills a wetland, but hearing about someone who wants to create one is just about the best thing a duck hunter can hear. (aside from duck feathers rustling in the wind)

I'm interested to get an update on this project and hear if you've started working on it. I'm looking at doing something similar on our place in NC, but on an old beaver pond. Would love to get some ideas. Good luck!

Good afternoon everyone. I hope everyone had a great duck season. I am new to the site so be patient as I fill my way thru. I was hoping I could get some advice for those who have been hunting ducks longer than I have. I have just started and a friend of mine has a swamp that we hunt. We live in north Alabama so sometimes the hunting is tough. We are going to start researching what we can do to make the swamp better so that ducks will come in there more often. We already think the place is a roost and has quite a few wood ducks. the water is anywhere from 2ft deep to probably 3 or 4ft deep. Most of the bottom that you can see is some type of grass that is in the water. I think we are going to try to have a local biologist look at the swamp and give us his opinion. What type of food can I plant in this type of environment if any? I doubt there is any type of seed you can just throw on top of the water and presto mother nature takes over. Haha. I would greatly appreciate any advice. Thanks